“I just don’t want Alyssa to be uprooted and her life turned upside down by this.”
“Alyssa. That’s a pretty name.” He relaxed slightly. “Consider it a vacation or retreat. It’s summer, right?”
I nodded as I reworked all the reasoning about this fake marriage again, and the concerns about what would happen if Alyssa and Wyatt grew close, and then the guilt at thinking that would be a bad thing.
“I’ll do it, but this is a fake marriage. It only lasts until Stark is dealt with and then we get it annulled and go back to our lives.”
He flinched. “Annulled. I think that means-”
“It means to the outside world we’re married, but in the privacy of home, we’re not acting married.”
He looked disappointed, and saying it was hard. But I needed to be clear that this was an arrangement.
“Was it that bad the other night? Because personally, I thought it was spectacular. Better than I’d remembered.”
I rolled my eyes. “It was lovely, Wyatt. But what we’re talking about here is an arrangement.
He cocked his head to the side. “Are you still mad about my leaving? I explained all that-”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with that.” I paused to try and figure out the best way to explain it. “If it was just me, I might be more cavalier about this, but I have Alyssa to think about. I need the boundaries clear for us all. It’s bad enough I’m going to uproot her, I don’t want her getting an idea that this is a real family.”
Pain flared in his eyes. It made my guilt even worse, because the truth was, we were a family.
“I understand.” He held out his hand. “A marriage of convenience until Stark is run out of town.”
I looked at his extended hand and then took it in mine to shake. “Deal.”
He handed me the ring. “This will make it look real in the world. I get that it’s fake, Sinclair, but for this to work, it has to look real.”
“Sinclair?”
I turned to see my mother calling me by the house.
“I’ll be there in a minute, Mom.”
“Is that Wyatt Jones with you?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Well tell him to come join us for supper. It’s on the table getting cold.”
I looked up at him.
He grinned. “You don’t want me to stay, do you?”
“It’s complicated.”
“We’re getting married, Sinclair. Perhaps it’s time they got to know me again since I’ll be their fake son-in-law. And maybe you’ll feel better about me being a fake step-father if your daughter got to know me.”
I swallowed hard, because step-father wasn’t right.
“Okay. You can join us, but nothing about a marriage, fake or otherwise. I need time to figure out the best way to explain this.”
He held his hands up in surrender. “I’ll behave, I promise.”
I shook my head, but smiled in amusement.
We walked back to the house together.